HoustonIsHome

I've said it before and will continue saying it there is no reason for highways to go through the core.

I would remove all of them in the loop and stick to boulevards and mass transit in the loop. Even I10 should go. Trucks from Jacksonville heading to LA should not be clogging areas around downtown. 10 can be looped around  610.

Trucks should definitely bypass downtown. 

2 hours ago, kbates2 said:

Are any of those invasive?  They are trying to get rid of the invasive ones.

No they are not, although birds do tend to spread Silverberry seeds I do not see the tree growing outside of people's yards.

The one that seems to grow like weeds is Chinese Tallow. It grows in concrete, cracks in asphalt, salty soil, wherever. It produces massive amounts of seeds that spring up quickly. Cutting the tree down to the ground will not kill it. Even if you cut the tree and dig up the stump, each root will form is own tree. 

On top of being almost impossible to get rid of it, the leaf litter poisons the soil making it difficult to grow most plants in the soil beneath it. So it is easy to grow anywhere and once established, it spreads and choke out other plants from growing. It's a pretty tree with beautiful fall foliage but because of its growth the wood is really week and usually people who offer to cut trees for free never extend that offer if the tree is Tallow. Anyone wanna come cut down mine? 

On 3/30/2018 at 8:11 PM, AnTonY said:

@HoustonIsHome: totally agree that there are lots of beautiful natives to use. But I also feel that they should be less conservative with their use of (suitable) exotic plants, both overseas and domestic. That will take landscaping in this city to the next level.

I agree. I love Live Oaks, every street needs some but there are exotic trees and shrubs that grow really well in this part of Texas that I would like to see incorporated in parks instead of the standard fair. Kinda like Washington and the Cherry Blossoms.

Bottlebrush is native to Australia but grows really well here. I love the big bursts of red flowers. They are evergreen like Live Oaks and just as drought tolerate.

Vitex/Chaste Tree Are also drought tolerant. They are not evergreen but you cut them down in the winter and they shoot right back up in the spring and are covered in blue or red  scented flowers in the summer.

Jasmine/ gardenia/ Camelia I see the climbing star Jasmine and Confederate Jasmine all over town but these bloom in the cusp between winter and spring but are not really noticeable fit the rest of the year. Arabian Jasmines bloom all and they come back really quickly in the spring.

Butterfly Weed, a cousin of milk weed, is one of those plant it and forget it plants. They have really deep and strong roots and beautiful orange flowers. Monarch butterflies and hummingbirds love them.

Loropelatum/ Chinese Fringe these are over used as hedges but they do make beautiful trees. Their leaves are purple if grown in the sun and green in the shade. In the spring they are covered in bright pink flowers. They are drought tolerant too.

Acacia Caven/ Espino Are very drought resistant and are covered in yellow flower balls in spring and summer and pods in the fall. The flowers have a light at scent.

Other plants I would like to see more here are Oakleaf hydrangeas, mountain laurels, Altheas, Tree Roses, Thrallis, Sweet Almond Verbena, Saucer Magnolias, Silverberry, Cleyera, Peacock Tree......

I think when landscaping is done, the only considerations are drought resistance and will it keep it's leaves in the winter. But there are so many interesting plants that could be included in parks that would add more interest. 

20 hours ago, AnTonY said:

Landscapers in this city need to use more exotics instead of just staying native. More palms and broadleaved evergreens, please. Spice things up around here.

There are tons of beautiful natives that they could also use. But it seems to me the same plants are planted over and over

It's a really exciting project for an underutilized part of downtown.

I wonder how active was that area when Clyde Barrow lived at the peacock.

I heard he used to hang out at Root Square. Must have been something off a spot at the time.

One issue that is never brought up when it comes to GFR.

Retail is a multifaceted issue and you cannot Question the need for GFR based on vacant GFR in the area.

You may want to ask other questions such as

1.) Are they vacant because people just don't want to set up shop in the area

2.) There is no market

3.)  It's cost prohibitive to set up shop in that area

I have no idea what it costs to rent retail space in downtown but I never here it brought up.

I dunno but if I can get almost as many customers underground but pay half the rent I pay on ground level then I will go that route.

This area is not yet like main around the corner.

This area is just picking up in terms of foot traffic. Areas that are not as busy rely on people in the area to keep their business alive. Since these are people in the know, the retail does not have to be visual. 

But this area IS picking up. I am of the opinion that if there was much more competition for ground floor retail space, owners would have more incentive to drop prices which would make it more cost effective to set up shop at street level especially in a burgeoning corridor. 

More street level retail usually improves the street presence which reinforces the cycle of more pedestrian traffic which increases the need for more storefronts which means higher occupancy for owners.

Everyone wins.

The pedestrians get a better experience.

The stores get more options and lower rent.

The building owners get more business.

The area benefits by being more active which benefits the building owners again in terms of increased property values.

Again I don't know rent costs. Just a theory.

I knew we had Nutria, but I didn't know we had beavers.

At the end of the day we have enough flooding issues already. We do not need beaver dams showing down the path of water to the Bay

9 minutes ago, samagon said:

unpopular opinion: I kind of miss the big grass field......

 

Interesting. Why?

On 3/16/2018 at 1:28 PM, Nole23 said:

 

This lot is my favorite undeveloped lot downtown right now. Hopefully a huge mixed use project gets built here as you mentioned.

Would be nice if they built something that match the surroundings like Aris in that lot

This is Caddy Corner to the Uhaul site.

Taking bets on how long the Book Shop will last.

But seriously the good year center has a really suburban feel to it. I would sometimes walk by this area on my lunch break so a park in this area is an awesome addition. 

Would have been awesome if they could have had the entire lot for use and built parking underneath.

3 hours ago, Texasota said:

How about Swamp College?

 

I would also accept University of Buffalo Bayou.

That would be UHD not HCC

Is that oz?

Where is that?

3 hours ago, Texasota said:

Katy bar the door?

Read it three times to make sure the tequila want making me read things wrong then gave up on trying to decipher what it means

Caydon needs to partner with Rice on the Sears project. Would love to see them do more projects in midtown.

There's style is fresh and different. Many proposals seem like an interesting building but these renders are interesting both in the form of the building and the functionality with it's surroundings. Love how both buildings interact with it's surroundings. Love the canopies, all the glass, the outside seating, the paths. This may turn into a destination. The apartments across the street is in a park and yet is a much more aloof building. Not very welcoming. 

Anyway, I'm very happy with what I've seen from caydon so far

I hope you are right. Yes, this is a good location but being in a good location does not preclude building ugly structures. Think of the Homeward Suites/Hampton inn nearby. Or that performing arts school being built nearby. Think of those two hedious garages built at the train stop across from the star or the huge monstrosity built north of Market Square.

If the price is right people definitely would choose to stay there over the others you mentioned. Budget trumps aesthetics when income is a factor.

Points for density improvements. This is a huge undeveloped plot between TMC and 288. 

I highly prefer developing undeveloped plots before imploding derelict buildings to rebuild on. That's one of  ( not the only ) the reasons why the density of buildings in TMC is higher than anywhere else in Texas. 

TMC and M D Anderson both are Houston gems

On 2/7/2018 at 8:44 AM, bobruss said:

Why? Isn't Trammel Crow a big time developer who always seems to pull off well executed projects. I'm going give them the benefit of the doubt.

Nothing against TC. It's just that the colors, materials and design are all overplayed and tired. I fear any design that takes me back to the Days Inn/ Holiday Inn/ Heaven on Earth Hell Hole and I get a feeling that this will look like an updated version of that building. 

And big time developers do have screwups. 

I'm hoping to see some brand new proposals soon as quite a few of the buildings proposed in the last building cycle has been built/ under construction.

The market isn't back yet for office and we have had so many wonderful conversions to hotel I think we due for some more residential towers as the Discovery Green and Root Square towers are getting off the ground the proposed list is getting slim.

The renderings make it look just as tall as OPP.

I like the sleek lines and the interplay of colors, but I have a sinking feeling the finished product is not going to be as nice. Oh well, at least it obscures that rather plain looking garage

Hate it.

The type of architecture I want to see in Houston are ones that interact more with their surroundings. this has very little ground floor interaction. Really hate that long stretch of wall on the bttm floors on the southern side

1 hour ago, Angostura said:

If this is going to be an innovation corridor, I'd like to see if developed in a more fine-grained manner, rather than one company having 5M s.f. of space.

The corridor is intended for many small start ups. I only threw out 5m SQ feet in relation to the Amazon bid. Was just highlighting that the bid need not have included the KBR site as this Wheeler site or the former Exxon site has adequate room. 

Saying this however,  a tech corridor from Wheeler to Exxon anchored by a tenant the size of Amazon would be transformative architecturally but I don't know how the smaller start ups would survive the competition.

There is enough space at both the Sears site and the Exxon location to each become a tech cluster. the KBR site is unnecessary. 

Exxon alone is what 1M SQ feet? Then there are about 4.5 empty lots surrounding it. You can easily house 5M sqfeet there alone. The Sears site is 9 acres not counting the big grassy triangle and the site mentioned in the OP that is fenced off. That area can easily house another 5M SQ feet. Those two sites alone has massive potential, KBR is overkill.

I think people keep bringing KBR up because it is huge, it is there, we want it to be utilized, but we don't know what to do with it.

I rather see it as something that utilises it as a whole (college campus, Theme park, Aquarium) than see it forced into some corridor worse: subdivide it like Hardy Yards.

This thing will have prime views. Pick your view: 

Ship Channel, Downtown, 4thward/ Montrose, uptown, Kirby, museum District, TMC. 

22 hours ago, Brooklyn173 said:

It has nothing to do with what I noticed a while back around the old Sears, but more rumors for the Wheeler Station area and other sites.

 

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Innovation-Corridor-could-be-lasting-legacy-of-12529073.php

I like all three sites. But how exactly is that a corridor?  

I love the idea behind it and it's catalysts like this that midtown needs to show it's true potential,  but what links the three sites?

Would be interesting to see what sort of link there was in the proposal. If there is none then I can see why the proposal failed to crack the top 20. I do wish that a tech corridor develops in midtown. And I do hope that that Exxon building can be repurposed as is. But three disjointed sites is not much of a corridor. It's like calling  St Thomas, TSU and UH a university corridor because they are all on Wheeler/ Richmond. I can see linking then by rail and calling the line the University Line, but what makes it a corridor?

I love our tunnels. I don't think the lack of signage helps though.

It's bad enough that the restaurants are below ground but with no signs of you don't know they are there then...

I would not discourage new tunnel access but I would definitely discourage new retail in tunnels. 

The activity underground is crazy. I think if the downtown worker mole people activity was visible on the surface that would entice non mole people to hang around downtown more. 

The surface is overrun by vagrants. Not until the mole people dilute the visibility of the vagrants will the non mole people enter the maze. 

New Orleans for example had tons of homeless in their business district. But they are less noticeable because there are so many workers on the street.

And signs. We need signs. It's so freaking hard giving people directions to Whataburger. It shouldn't be so hard. You can hardly find a seat in that thing during lunch hour. They would make a killing with a street location in that big Whataburger building on 609 main